The present invention relates to a technique for manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technique effectively applied to a static elimination technique of a semiconductor substrate and an accommodating technique of a closed type.
For example, as methods of static-eliminating the substrate, techniques thereof are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 8-8319, No. 7-14761 and No. 9-223673.
First, according to a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 8-8319, air is ionized by using an antistatic or static-elimination mechanism such as an ionized air generator, and the ionized air is blown on a substrate, thereby antistatic or static-elimination of the substrate is carried out, so that trouble such as miss transportation of substrates, or the like is prevented.
According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 7-14761, under the state that non-reactive gas is filled in a case in which an electrically charged substrate is put, electric charges of the electrically charged substrate are neutralized by generating ions and electrons in the case, and thereby complete annihilation of electromagnetic noise free, contamination free and residual potential can be achieved.
According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 9-223673, a transport apparatus is described which is capable of transporting a semiconductor substrate into a reactor that grows a predetermined semiconductor layer, without bringing out the semiconductor substrate outside the system thereof. Ion of predetermined gas is generated in predetermined atmosphere and thereby a semiconductor substrate in the transport apparatus is static-eliminated.
With respect to a clean room for performing manufacturing processes or the like of a semiconductor substrate, for example, the associated technology is described in pp. 16-21 of “Electronic Materials, August Issue” published on 1 Aug., 2000 by Kogyo Chosakai Co., Ltd. This issue reports a clean room structure including mini-Environment (meaning small environment made of a sealed container for isolating products from contamination and human being) and an elimination of chemical contaminant, etc.